2nd Anniversary

Ollie and Quentin is two years old this week. Two years since I handed my life over to the Syndication Monster and its Deadline Hounds who snap at my heels every day. At my launch I was about 6 months ahead, now I am about a week behind. This is typical of me as I work best under pressure so only have myself to blame.

I still love writing my feature (my day touring the Guildford coffee shops is my favorite day of the week) and do enjoy producing the artwork. That said I always prefer my pencil roughs to the black and white artwork that gets reproduced in newspapers. I'm happy with the color final though. Ollie and Quentin looks much better on screen which is where I see its future.

Two years on I can see that Ollie and Quentin hasn't exactly set the comic world alight. I like what I've been doing, my editor at King Features is still a fan and what mail I get is always very positive but my feature isn't competing with the best at all, in fact, it's still back in the changing room tying its shoelaces. The biggest insult of the year was O&Q appearing on the website that asks readers for proof that a syndicated comic actually appears in newsprint somewhere. Take it from me, it does! I don't really know why US readers haven't taken to Ollie and Quentin, I know they are slightly odd characters drawn in an unusual way and with very British humor but I hope, in time, readers will notice my feature as it is a far better comic than its sales figures suggest... but I would say that.

So, what of year three?

King Features do have some great ideas in the pipeline which I'm very excited about. Can't say anything now but watch this space.

I'm hoping to free up some time to do normal stuff. At the moment I spend a disproportionate amount of time on my comic and see life passing by with me chained to my desk. My kids are growing up fast (18 and 21) and I don't want to miss these last few years they'll be with us. I'm considering investing (gulp) in a Cintiq Tablet which may save me some time at artwork stage. I produce very tight pencil roughs so a Cintiq would be perfect to produce the linework from.

I need to concentrate on my other illustration work more. I have completely lost interest in anything other than my comic this year which would be fine if O&Q were in 500 newspapers but not when its in just a handful. Need to advertise more and develop my style further.

All said, I still LOVE being syndicated and am very happy to be paid to do what I've always wanted to do. I love my characters and am very happy with how the strip is developing. I just hope others may one day enjoy reading it as much as I do creating it.

Here's to year three! Cheers.